Apparently Bill Gates’ house isn’t big enough. According to News.com:
“…some changes are needed to make it more livable. Gates representatives said the home was designed for a bachelor and the family has found that it ‘isn’t fitting as they expected it to’…”
It’s a classic example of why user testing is always necessary. Imagine, he’s been living in a Beta version all this time.
Since he was kind enough to lend us his digital camera, we’ve squeezed in a late submission to our rock concert feature by David Moses.
For those that missed the link last week, I encourage you, a confused Canadian (or a disenfranchised American looking north), to read Matt’s article for ForgetMagazine.com: How I Inadvertently Came to Understand the Appeal of Stompin’ Tom Connors, Canadian Icon.
It helped me to come grips with my inability to appropriately balance living in Canada with not liking hockey (the solution being to shut up about it).
First, a confession: I am a web stats junkie. I get some kind of power rush from knowing that people are visiting our website.
The stats I love so much include keywords from popular search engines that have led people to aov. Some make sense, others do not. Some are interesting, others disturbing.
I have posted keywords on aov before. However, here is a a more in-depth sampling of such keywords with my thoughts on each:
I have secured tickets secured to U2‘s second Montreal show on the Elevation Tour.
You’re tired of Bono’s rock star preaching you say? What’s that? I can’t hear you. I’m too busy throwing my panties on the stage and weeping like a school-girl when they play songs from Joshua Tree.*
don’t you miss ralph nader?
I went to Pat & Willy’s, a local Mexican restaurant to celebrate a birthday (don’t even get me started on the bizarre market for faux-Mexican/Texan motif dining on Prince Edward Island – it boggles my mind).
They have a promotion where you get a free meal on your birthday. The idea, no doubt, is that you’ll bring your friends and they’ll bring their wallets. Fine idea.
They used to include a free piece of cake for dessert. This was a nice little treat. Tonight, one of the guys at my table jokes that you get a free Joe Louis for dessert. We all had a good laugh. Then, at the end of the meal, the waitress came with a plate with one lonely Joe Louis with some whipped cream, chocolate sauce, and a sparkler. When I say Joe Louis, I am talking about the cheap chocolate cake things you buy at the 7-11 (a close relative of the Wagon Wheel, often found in Junior High School brown-bag lunches)
.
Let me be absolutely clear. It was not like a Joe Louis. It was a Joe Louis.
The gem of the East Coast Music Awards was right under our collective nose (if there can be such a thing) all along.
The Charlottetown band, Eyes for Telescopes is comprised of former members of east-coast super-group strawberry.
They have recently released their first CD called Please Survive and it will make you cry (particularly the track My Boy). You can buy it Back Alley Discs.
More to come on aov about the band and the release.
I’ve been looking for an opportunity to mention that I used to work at a grocery store with the drummer and that old bands of ours played at the same shitholes on occasion, but it just hasn’t come up yet. I’ll let you know.
If you have either a lot of bandwidth or a lot of time, there is a nice amusing feature on cultural demographics called Psycho-Graphics at the CBC’s 120seconds.com (see my earlier comments about the site).
However, as is the evil nature of Flash websites, I can’t provide you a simple link to it! ARGH!* You’ll have to go to the front of the site and look for the feature called “Psycho-Graphics” yourself.
Jeffrey Zeldman, for those who don’t know, is the poster boy of independent content development on the web. His site, Zeldman.com, is fine example of an intelligent person writing interesting things. It’s not a navel-gazing blog site (although there are some great ones out there).
Read this great account of a web awards gala where Zeldman’s site is recognized along with a load of dot-com companies (this was a few years back, dot-commies were like Jean Cabot, telling the king that the waters off Newfoundland have so much fish you can almost walk on the water).
The best part is a conversation Zeldman has with a woman:
“What is your company?” says the bolder of the two. “I’ve never heard of it.”
“It’s a personal site,“ I say.
She brightens. “Oh, you mean like dating services?”
“No, I mean there’s no company, it’s just me. It’s entertainment for the Web.”
“Ah. Who supplies your entertainment content?”
“I do. I supply the entertainment content.”
She says, “What is your revenue model?”
I say, “I don’t have one.”
Where are they now? Zeldman is about to publish his book and his website is still a staple of independent content development.